There are various known types of connectors available for electrically connecting one PCB to another PCB or circuit, for example a flex circuit. Two circuit boards may be electrically connected to each other by connecting formed electrical contact areas on one circuit board to corresponding contact areas on another circuit board through a connector. In most cases, the contact areas are in the form of contact pads. The connectors allow transmission of electrical signals from one circuit board to the other.
A conventional connector comprises one or more spring-like terminals arranged within a connector body or housing. Connectors engage a circuit board in a variety of ways. One way uses “compression terminals”, where the electrical contact area is a pad on the PCB and the terminals are adapted to be resiliently compressed when pressed against the pad. To maintain the compression of the terminals against the pads, the PCBs must be held against the terminals.
Each terminal usually includes a resilient arm portion or elastic beam portion at one end of the terminal, a usually non-elastic portion at the other end, and a pivot between the two ends. When connecting two circuit boards, the connector is mounted between the two circuit boards so that the terminals are compressed between the two circuit boards. The resilient arm portion is deflected as the arm portion pivots about the pivot and is brought into pressure contact with the contact pad of a first of the two circuit boards. The other non-elastic portion is usually soldered to the contact pad of the second circuit board. The circuit boards may be mounted together by various means to maintain the connector terminals in a compressed state, such that the terminals are in pressure contact with the contact pads, allowing the transmission of electrical signals between the circuit boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,207, issued on 18 Nov. 1986 in the name of Sasaki et al, relates to a PCB connector comprising a plurality of roughly U-shaped terminals longitudinally housed within a connector body by pressure fitting. Each terminal comprises a round base portion, a first resilient arm portion having an elastically bent contact portion for contacting a pad on one of the PCBs, and a second arm portion having a similar elastically bent contact portion for contacting a pad on the other PCB. The resilient arms deflect and pivot about the base portion when the terminals are compressed. The PCBs are mounted such that the terminals are kept in a compressed state by the PCBs.
In certain applications, for example, in small electrical components, very small and low-height connectors are required to connect the printed circuits in the electrical components. For low-height connectors, the compression force required to maintain good contact between the terminals and the contact pads on the PCBs is either unattainable with conventional connectors, or achieved by using more expensive materials or through more complicated terminal designs and consequently incur higher manufacturing or production costs.
Thus, a need exists for an economical low-height connector that can sufficiently meet the compression force requirements.